Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Believe it or not, this New York cheesecake with chocolate chip crust recipe post was suppose to be a spicy coconut shrimp bisque video. Please allow me to explain.

When I woke up this morning, I could not have been more excited about the video recipe I was about to film...an Asian-Cajun-inspired bisque that I've been tasting with my mind since I saw John Besh make it in Atlanta.

As I set up the camera, my shrimp-eating grin turning into a frown that would have put Droopy the Dog to shame. I realized I'd left my camera battery and charger in Santa Monica. D'oh! So, after the longest video drought in Food Wishes history, my plans to make it all right were suddenly dashed.

A little heads-up: when you click on the video player below, you'll be taken to their site where you can watch the video and get the written recipe. Do not be afraid – if you have questions or comments, you can come on back and post them here. Thanks, and please stay tuned for the aforementioned bisque recipe. Enjoy!

Welcome back Chef John, the Cheesecake looks delicious & the cookie crust sounds like a nice twist. If you only have a pantry full of graham crackers what measurement would you shoot for? Also, your sense of humor is golden.. please don't do an 'Eddie Murphy' on us once you make it big

Here's my question: Do you think it's worth the step to bake in a water bath? I've done both ways and don't think I can tell a difference but have never done a side-by-side tasting.I love that you didn't do it and it still looks fabulous. Love the idea of the cookie crust.You ROCK!Jackie

I made this today and I totally under baked it. I saw that the top and the sides were starting to go dark brown (I mean really dark brown) and it also started to crack so I took it out not wanting to burn it. All in all I only baked it 60min. Anyways, Iet it cool and when I cut in to it the center was still very soft : ( What did I do wrong?

I put it back in the oven now for another 15min hopefully it doesn't kill me re-baking this.

I use a similar recipe (2 pounds cream cheese, 6 eggs, 1 C sugar, flavourings) and always get more cracking than looks nice unless I put a pan of water in while it bakes--which gives me acceptable cracking.

I'm curious why this video said to bake it for 75-85 minutes, but your previous video said 60. Is it simply because you're using cookies instead of graham crackers?

I'm also having a little debate with my brother. He said instead of cooking it for an hour, Alton Brown bakes it for 45 minutes and lets it cool in the fridge for 6 hours. I prefer your method where you bake it for 60 minutes and just let it cool at room temperature. Will there be any difference between the two cheesecakes at the end? Whenever I bake it, the top of my cheesecake is always brown-ish whereas yours are always creamy white.

EDIT: Woops, error. I didn't mean to say cool in room temperature. The main debate between my brother and I was either to bake it for 60 minutes like you said and then cool it, or bake it for 45 and cool it. He said that Alton Brown said that the cheesecake will still cook in the fridge, and by only baking it for 45, the top won't look as brown.

Wow, yesterday was not a good day for typing. Disregard everything I said earlier or possibly delete it to make this less confusing and myself look less like a fool =). The problem I'm having is that my cheesecake's top always looks brown/almost burnt whereas yours look creamy-white. I was wondering if there was anyway I could fix this? I noticed in Good Eats, Alton Brown cooks his cheesecake at 250 degrees (may be because it's smaller) for one hour, and after that hour, even though it looks uncooked, he turns off the oven. He then opens the oven door for one minute, then closes it and leaves the cheesecake in there for another hour. I was wondering if a similar method worked for your recipe, or if there is anything else I could do to make the top look creamy-white like yours. Thanks.

chef 1 important question, in your previous recipe(graham crackers recipe), the time to bake the cheesecake is 60 minutes whereas in this recipe the cheesecake took 75-85 minutes to bake. I'm confused. Which one is true?help me please. thanks

baking a cheesecake aint perfect especially when it comes to cracks (but we can always hide it hehe)mainly due to over whipping or mixing in the ingredients like the egg or cream/milk etc and/or due to the over cooking in the oven. this is wut i do when i bake the cake is put it into 350 already preheated (some ppl dont do that idk why but its crucial) bake within 45-60.i say in between 45-60 cuz u have to look for the signs "the rising and the slight jiggle"its hard to describe but if bake cheesecake u kno wut im talking about .once u got that, turn it off i open a little crack of the oven door for hot air just to come out( not so much heat , but enough for the cake to settle in) so it doesnt continue to cook it, close it and let it cool down in there. and there u have it and just to quote Nigella Lawson "smooth like a baby's bottom", but like i said from the start it aint perfect. from my experience i may have gotten a few perfect tops but ive gotten few cracks here and there.Ive done water bath method but i find it a bit longer in the cooking process to keep it in that custard like state.and one more thing the no bake cheesecake method isnt a substitute to real bake cheesecake :)